Starting your app

Intelliwright tests anything reachable over HTTP: a Next.js or Vite dev server, a Rails app, a static site, or a deployed URL.

baseURL

intelliwright.config.ts

export default defineConfig({
  baseURL: "http://localhost:3000",
});

With baseURL set, tests and page objects use paths: page.goto("/notes"), a page object's path = "/notes", and expect(page).toHaveURL("/notes"). It's also the origin that ai.run stays on.

webServer

webServer starts the app before the tests and stops it when they're done:

intelliwright.config.ts

export default defineConfig({
  baseURL: "http://localhost:3000",
  webServer: {
    command: "npm run dev",
    url: "http://localhost:3000",
    reuseExistingServer: true,
  },
});

Option	Default	What it does
command		The shell command that starts the app.
url		A URL that responds once the app is ready.
reuseExistingServer	false	Uses a server already running at url instead of starting one. Without it, a busy url is an error.
timeout	60000	Milliseconds to wait for url to respond.
cwd	The config's folder	Where command runs.
env		Extra environment variables for command.
showOutput	false	Prints the server's output. It's always shown when the server fails to start.

• The app counts as ready when url answers with a status from 200 to 403.
• webServer can be an array, to start several servers, such as an API and a front end.
• A common setup is reuseExistingServer: !process.env.CI: locally it reuses your dev server, and in CI it always starts a fresh one.
• Servers that the run started are stopped at the end, with everything they spawned. Servers it reused are left running.
• In UI mode, servers start once, before the page opens, and stop when UI mode does: when you close its page or press Ctrl+C.

Another environment

--base-url runs the same suite against another URL, such as a staging site or a preview deployment:

npx intelliwright test --base-url https://staging.example.com

webServer entries whose url is on a different origin are skipped, so nothing starts locally.

Environment variables

Before loading the config, Intelliwright loads .env.local and then .env from the config's folder. A variable that's already set, in your shell or in CI, is never overwritten. Use these files for provider keys and test credentials, and keep them out of git.

Before and after the suite

globalSetup and globalTeardown name modules whose default export runs once per run, before the workers start and after the last test:

intelliwright.config.ts

export default defineConfig({
  globalSetup: "./e2e/global-setup.ts",
  globalTeardown: "./e2e/global-teardown.ts",
});

e2e/global-setup.ts

export default async function globalSetup() {
  await seedDatabase();
  return async () => {
    await clearDatabase();
  };
}

Each function receives the resolved config. A function returned by globalSetup runs as teardown, before globalTeardown. Both run after webServer has started the app. In UI mode, they run once for the whole session, not once per run.